Rebounds will tell story for ND-Pitt

February 21, 2008|TOM NOIE Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- The game's Golden Rule is quite simple -- score more points than the other guys and you win. Easy. But tonight's game between No. 21 Notre Dame and Pittsburgh likely will turn on what happens when the ball bounces off the rim and the tough stuff starts. The Irish lead the league in rebounding offense (43.4). No team in the 16-team conference is better than the Panthers in rebounding defense (32.2). Notre Dame ranks first in the league in rebounding margin (plus-8.5). Pittsburgh is second at (plus-6.6). Something has to give. "It's going to be a big key to the game," Notre Dame's Zach Hillesland said. "It's just a matter of us out-working them on both ends and having a desire to go to the glass." That's something Pittsburgh has done as well as any team in the league over the last decade. Coach Jamie Dixon's squad keeps pounding and crashing and crashing and pounding while tracking loose balls. The Panthers do it with a front line considered small by today's standards -- 6-foot-6 Sam Young and 6-7 DeJuan Blair. Still, there's sometimes no substitute for something as basic as hard work and hustle. "Shear size is not going to get it done for you on the backboard," said Irish power forward Rob Kurz. "They've got a lot of guys who are physical and strong and athletic and go after the ball relentlessly. "You have to have a will for the ball." Notre Dame has out-rebounded its last five opponents and has not lost a game in which it has been out-rebounded by the opposition since Georgia Tech posted a plus-1 advantage in mid-November. Honoring Carr The oldest Irish basketball player (Kurz) still was some 16 years away from birth when a certain someone was becoming the greatest player to ever wear a Notre Dame uniform. Austin Carr will be honored at halftime tonight, but he needs no introduction to the current team. "We always hear about it," Tory Jackson said of Carr's collegiate accomplishments. "He's basically the one that got it started for people like me, opened doors for people like me." Notre Dame will honor Carr for his induction November into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Carr wanted Irish coach Mike Brey to present him in Kansas City, Mo., but Brey and the Irish were in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam. A member of the school's all-century squad, Carr remains the school's all-time leading scorer (2,560), and also owns the NCAA Tournament record of 61 points scored in 1970 against Ohio. A consensus All-American his senior season, Carr averaged 34.6 points during his three seasons, second-best in college history. He currently serves as color commentator and director of community relations for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bad breaks Pittsburgh seemed set to cruise into Christmas break in fine fashion. The Panthers were ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation and had just beaten Duke in overtime at Madison Square Garden to move to 11-0. But the Panthers' season turned the wrong way that night in New York when they lost senior Mike Cook for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Watching Cook crumple was tough for Kurz, a fellow Philadelphia native who has known Cook since the seventh grade. "I felt terrible for him," Kurz said. "He's a great kid." Eight days after Cook went down, senior point guard Levance Fields, the team's emotional epicenter, broke a bone in his left foot in a lopsided loss at Dayton and missed 12 games. Fields returned in Friday's loss to Marquette, but managed just 1-of-7 from the floor in 20 minutes. The foot still bothered him earlier this week when he and Blair (sore knee) both missed practice. That left Pittsburgh with too few healthy bodies to get much done three days before tonight's key conference game.